Mercedes will have a new driver join their team in 2025 in the form of 18-year-old Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who has already impressed with how well he’s to grips with their car.
Antonelli finally began his life with Mercedes during pre-season testing at Bahrain, where he matched Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and was quicker than Red Bull’s Liam Lawson during the race runs.
There is a lot of hype around Antonelli given he is seen as the next Max Verstappen by Toto Wolff, having fast-tracked him to F1 after his impressive results in junior formulas to replace Lewis Hamilton.
Antonelli completed 9,000km in private tests prior to his rookie season with Mercedes, as they prepared him for the highly pressured environment.
Discussing the two Mercedes drivers on the Formule 1 podcast, former driver Jan Lammers believes it is George Russell who will face the most pressure.
George Russell to face a lot of pressure at Mercedes if Kimi Antonelli beats him
Russell is entering his seventh season in F1 and fourth with Mercedes, with him now at the same point that Verstappen was challenging for his first title.
Although he would beat the seven-time world champion in qualifying when he was his teammate, Hamilton still led Russell on races head-to-head during their Mercedes tenure.
Lammers believes Russell will be under increased pressure to beat Antonelli compared to what it was like with Hamilton.
“It will be mentally very difficult for him because in the past if he was just a fraction slower than Hamilton everyone thought he was perfect, so he had nothing to lose,” said Lammers.
“Now with Antonelli, if he is half a second or three-tenths faster than Russell, what happens then? Because then he will have all kinds of questions again. Especially the influences from the media, it can really take their toll on Russell. So the problems that Russell is going to deal with this year are incomparably more than in previous years.”
Ted Kravitz thinks George Russell will beat Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen
Mercedes showed decent pace during pre-season testing, with GPS data appearing to show they were second-best to McLaren.
Verstappen was frustrated with his Red Bull during testing, with those viewing the RB21 trackside saying it was a handful for both drivers.
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With Hamilton also ‘slightly underprepared’ for the first round in Melbourne, due to the lack of race runs he did, it presents a good opportunity for some drivers.
Ted Kravitz thinks Russell will beat both Verstappen and Hamilton to the podium in Australia, given it is likely to be a McLaren one-two if they are as dominant as believed.
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